culturefandomcom-20200222-history
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
| birth_place = Jarotschin, Prussia (now Poland) | death_date = | death_place = Schruns, Austria | occupation = | organizations = | awards = }} Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE (9 December 1915 3 August 2006) was a German-BritishShe and Legge were married on 19 October 1953 in Epsom, Surrey; Schwarzkopf thus acquired British citizenship by marriage. soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and was renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta. After retiring from the stage, she was a voice teacher internationally. Early life Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf was born on 9 December 1915 in Jarocin in the Province of Posen in Prussia (now Poland) to Friedrich Schwarzkopf and his wife, Elisabeth (née Fröhlich). Schwarzkopf performed in her first opera in 1928, as Eurydice in a school production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in Magdeburg, Germany. In 1934, Schwarzkopf began her musical studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where her singing tutor, Lula Mysz-Gmeiner, attempted to train her to be a mezzo-soprano. Schwarzkopf later trained under Maria Ivogün, and in 1938 joined the Deutsche Oper. Early career In 1933, shortly after the Nazis came to power, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's father, a local school headmaster, was dismissed from his position by the new ruling authorities for having refused to allow a Nazi party meeting at his school. He was also banned from taking any new teaching post. Until Friedrich Schwarzkopf's dismissal, the probability was that the 17-year-old Elisabeth would have studied medicine after passing her Abitur; but now, as the daughter of a banned schoolteacher, she was not allowed to enter university and she commenced music studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Schwarzkopf made her professional debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (then called Deutsches Opernhaus) on 15 April 1938, as the Second Flower Maiden (First Group) in act 2 of Richard Wagner's Parsifal. In 1940 Schwarzkopf was awarded a full contract with the Deutsches Opernhaus, a condition of which was that she had to join the Nazi party. In one version, for example, she claimed that she joined the party only at the insistence of her father who, himself, had earlier lost his position as school principal after forbidding a Nazi program in the school. Further publications discussed her musical performances during the war before Nazi party conferences and for units of the Waffen-SS. Her defenders argue in favor of her claim that she always strictly separated art from politics and that she was a non-political person. In 1942, she was invited to sing with the Vienna State Opera, where her roles included Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Musetta and later Mimì in Puccini's La bohème and Violetta in Verdi's'' La traviata. Schwarzkopf starred in five feature films for Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, in which she acted, sang and played the piano. Post-war career '']] In 1945, Schwarzkopf was granted Austrian citizenship to enable her to sing in the Vienna State Opera (''Wiener Staatsoper). In 1947 and 1948, Schwarzkopf appeared on tour with the Vienna State Opera at London's Royal Opera House at Covent Garden on 16 September 1947 as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni and at La Scala on 28 December 1948, as the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which became one of her signature roles. Schwarzkopf later made her official debut at the Royal Opera House on 16 January 1948, as Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute, in performances sung in English, and at La Scala on 29 June 1950 singing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. Schwarzkopf's association with the Milanese house in the early 1950s gave her the opportunity to sing certain roles on stage for the only time in her career: Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Jole in Handel's Eracle, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, as well as her first Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and her first Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Piccola Scala. On 11 September 1951, she appeared as Anne Trulove in the world premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. Schwarzkopf made her American debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on October 28 and 29, 1954, in Strauss's Four Last Songs and the closing scene from Capriccio with Fritz Reiner conducting; her American opera debut was with the San Francisco Opera on 20 September 1955 as the Marschallin, and her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 19 December 1964, also as the Marschallin. ]] In March 1946, Schwarzkopf was invited to audition for Walter Legge, an influential British classical record producer and a founder of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Legge asked her to sing Hugo Wolf's lied ''Wer rief dich denn? and, impressed, signed her to an exclusive contract with EMI. They began a close partnership and Legge subsequently became Schwarzkopf's manager and companion. They were married on 19 October 1953 in Epsom, Surrey; Schwarzkopf thus acquired British citizenship by marriage. Schwarzkopf would divide her time between lieder recitals and opera performances for the rest of her career. When invited in 1958 to select her eight favourite records on the BBC's Desert Island Discs, Schwarzkopf chose seven of her own recordings, and an eighth of Karajan conducting the Rosenkavalier prelude, as they evoked fond memories of the people she had worked with.Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Alan Jefferson (1996). "In any case, this famous Desert Island Discs broadcast has gone down in legend, immediately identifying Schwarzkopf for many who had never previously heard of her."Gramophone, vol. 83 (2006). "1958 Appears on Desert Island Discs and raises eyebrows by ..."Gramophone, vol. 83 (2005), Letters. "Schwarzkopf's Desert Island Discs Talk has come up again of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and her Desert Island Discs broadcast in 1958 recently repeated on Radio 3 with her unique choice of seven of her ..."Prima donna: a history, Rupert Christiansen (1995). "It made Schwarzkopf into a uniquely self-conscious interpreter: it was perfectly natural to her that when asked on the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs to select eight recordings to be shipwrecked with, she should choose only her ..." In the 1960s, Schwarzkopf concentrated nearly exclusively on five operatic roles: Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Countess Madeleine in Strauss's Capriccio, and the Marschallin. She was also well-received as Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff. However, on the EMI label she made several "champagne operetta" recordings like Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow and Johann Strauss II's The Gypsy Baron. Schwarzkopf's last operatic performance was as the Marschallin on 31 December 1971, in the theatre of La Monnaie in Brussels. For the next several years, she devoted herself exclusively to lieder recitals. On 17 March 1979, Walter Legge suffered a severe heart attack. He disregarded doctor's orders to rest and attended Schwarzkopf's final recital two days later in Zurich. Three days later, he died. Retirement and death After retiring (almost immediately after her husband's death), Schwarzkopf taught and gave master classes around the world, notably at the Juilliard School in New York City. After living in Switzerland for many years, she took up residence in Austria. She was made a doctor of music by the University of Cambridge in 1976, and became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1992. Schwarzkopf died in her sleep during the night of 2–3 August 2006 at her home in Schruns, Vorarlberg, Austria, aged 90. Her ashes, and those of Walter Legge, were buried next to her parents in Zumikon near Zürich, where she had lived from 1982 to 2003. Legacy She left a discography that is considerable both in quality and in quantity and will be mostly remembered for her Mozart and Richard Strauss operatic portrayals, her two commercial recordings of Strauss's Four Last Songs, and her countless recordings of lieder, especially those of Wolf. Schwarzkopf's entry in The Grove Book of Opera Singers concludes: "Although she dismissed her Party membership as a professional necessity, her reputation has remained tarnished by what seems to have been an active party membership." Awards * 1950: Lilli Lehmann Medal, Mozarteum International Foundation, Salzburg * 1959: 1. "Orfeo d'Oro", Mantua (?) * 1969: Orphée d'or recording award from the Académie du disque lyrique in Paris * 1961: Edison Award, Amsterdam * 1961: Awarded the title Deutsche Kammersängerin * 1964: Honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music * 1967: Stockholm television award for best European soprano Stockholmer * 1971: Hugo-Wolf Medal * 1974: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany * 1982: Mozart Medal of the city of Frankfurt am Main * 1983: Honorary member of the Vienna State Opera and title of Kammersängerin * 1986: Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres * 1991: UNESCO Mozart Medal * 1992: Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to music * 2002: * 2012: Voted into Gramophone Hall of Fame Quotations * (After being asked about Peter Sellars) "There are names I do not want mentioned in my home. Do not say that name in my presence. I have seen what he has done, and it is criminal. As my husband used to say, so far no one has dared go into the Louvre Museum to spray graffiti on the Mona Lisa, but some opera directors are spraying graffiti over masterpieces." – Newsweek interview, 15 October 1990 * "Many composers today don't know what the human throat is. At Bloomington, Indiana, I was invited to listen to music written in quarter tones for four harps and voices. I had to go out to be sick." – Newsweek interview, 15 October 1990 * (Asked in 1995 if she would sing in the cultural climate of the 1990s if she were much younger) "It's a kind of prostitution now. There is nobody I envy. There's a disintegration of integrity in our profession." Recordings Recordings include the following. Bach * St Matthew Passion (Klemperer), Philharmonia Orchestra (Warner Classics 1961) Brahms * A German Requiem (Klemperer), Philharmonia Orchestra (Warner Classics 1961) Humperdinck * Hänsel und Gretel (Karajan) (1953) Naxos 8.110897-98 Lehár * Das Land des Lächelns (Ackermann) (1953) and excerpts from Lehar Operettas Naxos 8.111016-17 * Die lustige Witwe (Kunz, Gedda) (1953) Naxos 8.111007 Mozart * Don Giovanni (Carlo Maria Giulini, Philharmonia Orchestra) (Warner Classics 1959) with Joan Sutherland as Donna Anna. * Le nozze di Figaro (Carlo Maria Giulini, Philharmonia Orchestra) (Warner Classics 1959) * Così fan tutte (Otto, Karajan) (1954) Naxos 8.111232-34 Johann Strauss II * Die Fledermaus (Gedda, Karajan) (1955) Naxos 8.111036-37 Richard Strauss * Four Last Songs / Arabella (highlights) (Ackermann, Matacic) (1953, 1954) Naxos 8.111145 * Four Last Songs (Szell; 1965; Warner Classics "Great Recordings of the Century"; Cat: 0724356696020) * Ariadne auf Naxos (Streich, Karajan) (1954) Naxos 8.111033-34 * Capriccio (Christa Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Nicolai Gedda, Wolfgang Sawallisch) (1957) Warner Classics CDS 7 49014-8 Verdi * Messa da Requiem (Di Stefano, De Sabata) (1954) Naxos 8.111049-50 Richard Wagner * Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Karajan) (1951) Naxos 8.110872-75 Video She can be seen in two videotaped performances as the Marschallin: * Schwarzkopf Seefried Fischer-Dieskau, a black-and-white DVD of these three singers. Schwarzkopf performs the Act I Finale from Der Rosenkavalier, from a performance filmed in London, 1961. Published by Warner Classics, Catalog number DVB 4904429. * Der Rosenkavalier: the Film, a color videotape/DVD of a full length performance conducted by Herbert von Karajan with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra from the 1961 Salzburg Festival, featuring Sena Jurinac, Anneliese Rothenberger, Otto Edelmann, and Erich Kunz. Published by KULTUR. ASIN: B0043988GM. Notes and references Further reading * Jefferson, Alan Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Northeastern University Press (August 1996) ISBN 1-55553-272-1 Chapter One extract * Legge, Walter; postscript by Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth; ed. Sanders, Alan Walter Legge: Words and Music Routledge (1998) ISBN 0-415-92108-2 * Liese, Kirsten, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. From Flower Maiden To Marschallin. English translation: Charles Scribner. Molden, Vienna 2007. ISBN 978-3-85485-218-6 * Liese, Kirsten, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. From Flower Maiden To Marschallin. English translation: Charles Scribner. Amadeus Press, New York, 2009. ISBN 978-1-57467-175-9 * Sanders, Alan The Schwarzkopf Tapes: An artist replies to a hostile biography Classical Recordings Quarterly and The Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Walter Legge Society, (2010) ISBN 978-0-9567361-0-9 * Sanders, Alan and Steane, John B Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: A Career on Record Amadeus Pr (January 1996) ISBN 0-931340-99-3 * Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth Les autres soirs Tallandier (August 16, 2004) ISBN 2-84734-068-8 * Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth On and Off the Record: A Memoir of Walter Legge Faber and Faber Ltd (December 31, 1982) ISBN 0-571-11928-X; Scribner (March 1982) ISBN 0-684-17451-0; (paperback) ISBN 0-571-14912-X; University of British Columbia Press (January 1, 2002) ISBN 1-55553-519-4 External links * Bach Cantatas biography * Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Museum in Hohenems/Austria * BBC Obituary: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf * The Guardian (Alan Blyth) Obituary: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf * The Times Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (obituary) * The Daily Telegraph Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (obituary) * The Washington Post (Adam Bernstein) Renowned Coloratura Soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 90 (obituary) * The New York Times (Anthony Tommasini) Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Opera Singer, Dies at 90 (obituary) (requires registration) * The Washington Post (Tim Page) The Plaintive Last Song of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (appreciation) * Norman Lebrecht: Schwarzkopf's Career Had Somber Side * BBC Soprano Schwarzkopf dies aged 90 * BBC Diva's 'place in history assured' * The Guardian (Charlotte Higgins) Elisabeth Schwarzkopf dies at 90 * * Prewar photo of Schwarzkopf as Zerbinetta (scroll down) * Discography warnerclassics.com * Discography from sopranos.freeservers.com * Another Discography (Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings) Category:1915 births Category:2006 deaths Category:Lieder singers Category:German emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Singers awarded knighthoods Category:Disease-related deaths in Austria Category:German opera singers Category:German sopranos Category:Operatic sopranos Category:People from the Province of Posen Category:People from Jarocin Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:20th-century opera singers Category:20th-century German musicians Category:Nazi Party members